Nursing grads can’t find jobs: association

With countrywide shortage looming, Canada needs to find a way to keep them

Despite localized nursing shortages, about 15 per cent of Canada’s graduating nurses won’t find a job this year, predicts the Canadian Nurses’ Association.

That’s because while some provinces, such as Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, are already feeling the crunch of baby boomer retirements, other regions have a glut of nurses who can’t find full-time jobs.

“A lot of new graduates aren’t aware of jobs across the country and we don’t do a good job of co-ordinating our efforts to make sure we do absorb every grad,” said Lisa Little, a senior nurse consultant in health human resources at the Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA) in Ottawa.

Canada tends to lose about 10 per cent of new nurses every year to the United States, according to the Canadian Council on Social Development. U.S. employers offer better pay, more benefits and healthy workplaces, said Little.

“If we don’t offer the right conditions of employment, they will leave,” she said. And one of those conditions is full-time employment, she added.

However, a 2006 report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that, from 2000 to 2005, less than half of registered nurses had full-time jobs.

Unfortunately, too many employers think it’s less expensive to hire people on a part-time or casual basis rather than hire them full time, said Little. However, temporary employees are more likely to leave an organization because they don’t have any institutional loyalty, she said.

“People who are part-time and casual actually have a higher turnover rate so you’re actually spending money to replace them all the time,” said Little.

It’s not that the system can’t afford to hire them full-time, said Little. Employers are paying the equivalent of 10,000 full-time jobs in overtime every year.

“Let’s stop paying people to do overtime and hire more people, hire all the new grads and allow them to work regular hours,” she said.

Calgary has put a plan in place to do just that. The city has been experiencing explosive growth in all sectors, which has put a significant demand on the health-care system, said Susan Cassidy, executive director of workforce strategies for the Calgary Health Region.

“We need a significant number of nurses currently and into the future,” she said. There are about 600 vacancies and Cassidy predicts that will increase when a new Calgary hospital opens in 2011. And that need can’t be met solely through local educational institutions, she added.

To ensure the city will have enough nurses, the health region has launched its new graduate policy. The Calgary Health Region guarantees a one-year, full-time job to any new graduate who hasn’t had a regular nursing job.

“We’re pretty much prepared to do anything,” she said.

The Edmonton Health Region also has a new graduate policy and the Ontario government has guaranteed a full-time job for every Ontario nursing graduate for seven-and-a-half months. With CNA estimating it costs governments $40,000 to $50,000 to train a nurse, more governments should be offering similar guarantees, said Little.

“It’s not acceptable to train all these students and have them leave,” she said.

While Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t have an official policy about giving every new graduate a full-time job, jobs are available, said Peggy Earle, a nursing consultant with the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador’s health policy and communications.

“All our grads can get jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador if they want them,” she said. “They can get full-time, permanent jobs.”

This represents a turnaround from last year when new graduates couldn’t get full-time positions. The increase in available positions is due to the government increasing the number of public health positions for nurses and to the retirements of baby boomer nurses, said Earle.

“We’re seeing a widening gap between the supply and demand. We know it’s going to heighten by 2009 when we’re really going to see the baby boomers retire,” she said.

And that’s a gap the entire country will see shortly, according to the CNA. The association predicts Canada will need about 12,000 nurses in 2009 but there will only be about 9,000 available, which is why it’s so important for governments and employers to figure out how to keep nurses in Canada, said Little.

“We can’t afford to lose even one student,” she said.

To stop nurses from leaving the country, or the profession, employers that need nurses can’t wait until the end of the school year to recruit graduates, said Little. Employers also need to take advantage of the Internet to reach the younger generation.

“They’re not reading the Globe and Mail,” she said. “Employers have to look at their recruitment strategies and make sure they’re suited to new grads and the younger population.”

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